We have already reviewed two hard-drives with built-in Wi-Fi, the Kingston Wi-Drive Portable and Seagate GoFlex Satellite. Now we have the Transcend Wireless Drive StoreJet Cloud in our hands, available in capacities of 32 and 64Gb. It can be accessed wirelessly by an iOS or Android devices, as well as acting as a typical hard drive, which can be connected via USB to your computer. This means you can load it with your pictures as well as eBooks, documents, music, movies and access them on the move.

On test here is the 32Gb version, which is available for around £60, with the 64Gb one costing nearer the £100 mark. The review has been done using iOS.

Transcend Wireless Drive StoreJet Cloud Handling

The StoreJet isn't as wide or long as the iPhone 4, but is slightly fatter. It comes with a pouch to keep it in good condition. It can be charged via a wall plug or computer via USB.

To add media, you connect the device via USB 2.0 to your computer, as you would any ordinary external hard drive. When you have finished adding your content, you need to disconnect it from your computer and switch it on. When the device is ready (around 15-20 seconds), the wireless light will turn from green to blue. The other light indicates how much charge the device has, when blank it is charged between 25-100%, flashing red is 20-25%, with solid red indicating there is less than 20% power left.

On your device, either iOS or Android, you need to install the StoreJet Cloud app, available from the iTunes Store, Google Play and Amazon Appstore. The next step is to connect to the StoreJet Cloud.

As suggested in the quick start guide, we did a check for a firmware update and found that version 1.2 was available. The update was a simple and fairly quick job. Using the app you can also change the administrator password from the default one.

When you are connected to the StoreJet Cloud you are no longer connected to the internet. There is the facility to connect the drive to your internet so you can maintain your connection but we couldn't get this to work, even after the firmware update. We have spoken to Transcend and this is something they are looking into and will fix shortly.

Transcend Wireless Drive StoreJet Cloud Performance

To connect to the device you need to select it from Wi-Fi in your device settings, then start up the app. The device can store any file but only those supported by your device can be played. Folders are easily accessible from the app, with the structure displayed the same as how they have been uploaded. Thumbnails appear, although they can be a little slow to load. You can swipe through photos and view them full screen. Downloading pictures from the StoreJet to an iOS device was easy, they did take a little while to transfer. Images can be taken using the StoreJet app on device with a camera.

When playing music you can select shuffle or play through in order the songs in the chosen folder. Videos did occasionally stutter, the app even crashed at times, but once they got going they kept going.

You can connect other devices to the StoreJet Cloud by using its IP address or URL (storejet-cloud) in a browser, as long as you are connected to it by Wi-Fi.

Value for money

The Transcend Wireless Drive StoreJet Cloud 32Gb is available for around £60, with the 64Gb version costing nearer the £100 mark. The Kingston Wi-Drive Portable, which comes in capacities of 16Gb, 32Gb and 64Gb priced at £44.99, £64.99 and £82.38 respectively. The 500Gb Seagate GoFlex Satellite is available from £124.99. The Hitachi G-Connect is also 500Gb but costs around £189.00.

Transcend Wireless Drive StoreJet Cloud Verdict

The StoreJet Cloud is a handy solution if you have filled up your iOS/Android devices memory and want to carry around more music, films and pictures. It's useful that you can transfer pictures from the drive to your device, meaning they can be edited and shared, but you can only transfer one at a time.

Unfortunately, where we feel the drive is let down, is its price, given that you can buy the 500Gb Seagate GoFlex Satellite for £124.99. But if you can't stretch that far and need some more storage, the Transcend Wireless Drive StoreJet Cloud is a decent, yet far from perfect option. We'll look out for any firmware and/or app updates which enhance performance.

Transcend Wireless Drive StoreJet Cloud Pros

Very easy to use app interfaceExtremely small and light-weightFiles can be saved to your iOS/Android deviceDecent 6 hour battery lifeSimple way of carrying more media with youCan be used by up to five users

Transcend Wireless Drive StoreJet Cloud Cons

Couldn't connect it to Wi-Fi to continue internet connectionCrashed when opening some videos

Comments

Transcend Wireless Drive StoreJet Cloud Cons
- Couldn't connect it to Wi-Fi to continue internet connection
We are currently looking into this and will have a solution soon.
We call the above 'Bridge Mode' and is actually one of our unique features.
It's now been sent to our R&D department for further testing.
Transcend UK

We are currently looking into this and will have a solution soon.
We call the above 'Bridge Mode' and is actually one of our unique features.
It's now been sent to our R&D department for further testing.

Good news, we have now released a new version (v1.0.2) of our StoreJet Cloud app for Android, which deals with the Wi-Fi connectivity issues, as well as providing better performance.
Thank you
Transcend UK

Good news, we have now released a new version (v1.0.2) of our StoreJet Cloud app for Android, which deals with the Wi-Fi connectivity issues, as well as providing better performance.

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